And how does one date this book (apart from writings within for date of gifting the book)? For what it is worth (I'm thinking maybe $0.02, if you can find anyone to take pennies) My book is identical to the one shown (apart from a couple of baby scribbles and the inscription at the beginning).

This one was publised by Frederick Warne & Co., Ltd London and New York, so obviously not THE first edition you mentioned.

Most books can be dated fairly easily from their imprint information, usually found on the verso (the back) of the title page – in addition to the publisher, there is often the date or some other indication of the edition or impression of that particular book.

Unfortunately, Walter Crane is one of those authors / illustrators whose works are particularly difficult to date, and “ Baby’s Opera” seems to be no exception. Many of the editions (especially the pre-1900 editions) are undated.

The British Library online catalogues are not particularly helpful because of this, and they don’t even offer a clue as to when Warne took over the publishing rights. Neither does there seem to be any detailed online bibliography of Crane’s works.

The 2 main printed bibliographies are Masse, Gertrude C. E. A Bibliography of First Editions of Books Illustrated by Walter Crane. London : Chelsea Publishing, 1923 and Spencer, Isobel. Walter Crane. New York : Macmillan Publishing, 1975, and between them they almost certainly offer as much detailed information as to editions, bindings, points of issue etc. as you will find anywhere. Sadly, I don’t have either bibliography to hand to be able to help you.

The chances are, though, that ‘your’ copy of “Baby’s Opera… is more-or-less contemporary with the inscription date.

... As to evidence for less-than-strict non-chronological dating of some Sowerby pattern numbers…for the past year or so, for my own ‘entertainment’ I have been building a database correlating Sowerby RD numbers with their pattern book numbers, cross referencing them to the appropriate pattern book pages and, wherever possible, photos of each pattern in as many variants of size and colour as possible – a bit like Cottle crossed with Slack, Thompson, Murray, Lattimore etc. (but with knobs on and lots more pretty pictures). It has been an interesting exercise which has filled in lots of gaps (and time), though still far from complete (especially the flint glass tableware ranges).

Here are a few short sequences ... The chronological anomalies should be self evident. ...

A very useful exercise, and one I should have done myself years ago.

However we have to be careful not to come to unwarranted conclusions. I think that there are enough apparent discrepancies and irregularities in Sowerby pattern numbering to show that first (lozenge) and second series registration numbers and dates were not relevant to Sowerby's allocation of pattern numbers. I don't believe that we will ever know how they did allocate pattern numbers, but that doesn't stop you drawing the conclusion that they were sequential.

It is actually quite unusual to be certain how any British glassworks allocated pattern numbers. One notable exception is Walsh, because of a transcription error in the "W" factory pattern book on p.109, where pattern W10419 was followed by W14020. This new sequence appears uncorrected in later trade catalogues and advertisements, showing that it was when the pattern was entered into the factory pattern book that decided the pattern number. So C20 Walsh pattern numbering was sequential within the "W" and "A" pattern books, but we can't be certain how it was done earlier (see the pattern numbering on the Crushed Strawberry / Electric Blue advertisement in PG, 1 November 1883, Reynolds p.41).

Bernard C.

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